Google Street View car pulled over by police for driving in bus lane

One of the cars that are currently filming every road in Britain stopped by
police - for driving in a bus lane.

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The Google Street View car after being stopped by policePhoto: Chris Whiteoak

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The Google Street view car before it was stopped...Photo: Chris Whiteoak

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.... for driving in a lane reserved for buses, taxis and bicyclesPhoto: Chris Whiteoak

By Matthew Moore

6:39PM BST 30 Jul 2008

The distinctive vehicle – complete with roof-mounted camera pole and Google logo on the door - was stopped in the centre of Bradford at 12.40pm yesterday.

Eyewitnesses described how the Google car was followed through the city centre by a panda car with sirens blazing.

“I was just going on my lunch break at work today and I noticed a black car that had stopped at a red light, said Chris Whiteoak, who took the pictures above. "It had a Google sticker on the side, and a large camera 'thing' on the top.

“I decided to pull out my camera phone to take a pic, but just as I did a police car pulled up right behind it and put on its lights and the officer inside was motioning the car to pull over,” he told the Neatorama blog.

“I then realised why, as the car was in the lane to go straight ahead, which was marked ‘bus, bicycle, taxi only’.

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“Before I could take another pic, the Google car sped off, went nearly the whole way round the block in busy Bradford city centre (the police still following now with lights and siren on), before eventually pulling into a car park, which just happened to be the car park to the old police station.”

A West Yorksire police spokesman confirmed that the Google car had been pulled over on Channing Way in the city but said that no further action had been taken.

“The vehicle had driven down a bus only lane and the officer just pulled him over to see what he was doing,” a spokeswoman said.

“He explained that we was from Google and had permission to be in the area, and he was sent on his way.”

Google confirmed last month that its camera cars had begun filming in Britain.

Google Street View, which already covers more than 50 US cities, is an eye-level mapping service that allows billions of web users to take close-up tours of urban centres.

Privacy campaigners have threatened to refer it to the Information Commissioner over concerns that it may break data protection laws, by recording and broadcasting people without their consent.

Google has said it will not launch the service in the UK until it is comfortable that it complies with local law.